Last year, Apple made a big change to the GPU used in its chipset. Rather than a PowerVR GPU from Imagination Technologies, it used its own custom GPU and cut ties with its supplier. That singular act by Apple put Imagination out of business as Apple was its biggest client. Now, there is news Samsung is developing its own GPU too.
An exclusive report by Winfuture.de has revealed that Samsung has been recruiting talent from companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD for new GPU teams at its Texas and California offices.
The new teams are said to be working on “flagship GPUs” which will first be used with Samsung’s low-range devices. Its more expensive flagships will continue to use ARM-based GPUs. The second-gen model of its GPU will be used in its high-end phones and even in self-driving vehicles and machine learning.
Samsung’s GPU will be built from the ground-up and won’t be based on ARM designs. Samsung will also develop the software and instruction set and a new platform that will take advantage of the GPU’s features. Production should not be an issue since Samsung already has that covered.
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Samsung isn’t the only big name manufacturer that is working on its own in-house chipset. Google is doing the same too. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL both have a custom-built image processing chipset for their cameras called Pixel Visual Core. It allows third-party apps to take advantage of the HDR+ feature of the Pixel camera. The Pixel 3 (and Pixel 3 XL) are expected to feature an improved version of the Pixel Visual Core. Amazon is also reported to be developing its own custom AI chip for use in its future Echo devices.
(Source)
